Stan Collymore returns to Twitter after calling on social network to take action against racist abuse

Deleted: The former Liverpool striker has deleted his Twitter account (Image: PA)

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Stan Collymore has returned to Twitter having earlier deleted his account - hours after accusing the social network of "not doing enough" to combat the deluge of racist slurs and death threats he has received in recent days.

The talkSPORT pundit and former England international yesterday called on Staffordshire Police to investigate "horrific" racist tweets and claimed that children as young as ten are being "goaded" by adults into posting racist and sexist tweets.

The 43-year also accused Twitter of not having adequate age verification procedures and that they are "hiding behind" claims that they cannot comment on individual cases.

The former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker has more than 503,000 followers on the social network and had tweeted about the abuse he had recently received on Tuesday:

"In the last 24 hours I've been threatened with murder several times, demeaned on my race, and many of these accounts are still active. Why?

"I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic /sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK."

This came after talkSPORT released a statement saying they were ready to boycott the service and had written to the social network to "express the station's dissatisfaction with Twitter’s apparent lack of support of presenter Stan Collymore."

The radio station's chief executive Scott Taunton said: “We are dismayed at the lack of response and perceived inaction by Twitter. Racist or abusive messages of this nature are illegal and unacceptable.

"We have more than three million Twitter followers across our accounts but we will not promote these until we are satisfied that Twitter is doing its utmost to prevent abuse of this nature. We have a duty of care to all our staff and presenters and until I am satisfied that Twitter is treating this seriously we will no longer promote Twitter accounts or use tweets on-air.

It seems inconceivable that a hi-tech company with a market capitalisation of $30bn appears incapable of preventing racist and abusive tweets being broadcast across its platform".